Minnesota!

[aussiegal318]

Headed south to see Minnie, and came back with 11 sweet little puff balls! WooHoo! Thanks Theri! It's good to put a face to a name. Now if I can remember what each of the puffs are I'll be doing good

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Hey all,

Just getting started in NE Minneapolis with my 4 chicks!

Cheers,

Abbey

Welcome to the MN Thread Abbey!

for more MN chicken keepers!

Headed south to see Minnie, and came back with 11 sweet little puff balls! WooHoo! Thanks Theri! It's good to put a face to a name. Now if I can remember what each of the puffs are I'll be doing good

Awww Aussie, got her Buckeyes! Post some pics when you get a chance, Aussie! DH and my son get to meet Theri on Sunday. Excited to get my hatching eggs!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

The probability that I would actually go through with it is extremely extremely low and if I would, both neighbors (with giant dogs that bark into the night), would have the opportunity to say no.

Really I just wanted to hear what you all would choose, about breeds and what would be things to consider...for conversation and learning...because it's better than being frustrated and sad about it.

It hardly seems fair, does it? I ran into a thread like that on here where a lady was allowed to have Roosters in her town ...but had noise complaints filed against her by her neighbors while their dogs barked. Craziness...

I hope someday you get chickens...I really do. If you have interest and heart for such a thing you deserve to have them. I have a friend who lived in a suburb of Minneapolis where her 6 "illegal" hens were kept by her and her loving family. Some neighbor discovered it and the police showed and she had to scramble to get rid of them. Thankfully she had an Aunt up here which she could bring the birds to. But not all people have that kind of outlet to find good homes.

 

[aussiegal318]

Awww Aussie, got her Buckeyes! Post some pics when you get a chance, Aussie! DH and my son get to meet Theri on Sunday. Excited to get my hatching eggs!

I got a mix and she did sneak a buckeye in. (Happy dance!) I could have spent quite a while talking to her, but Aussie #3, aka Bandit, was being a bit of a pain, that & we both other thing to get done.

 

[jbenson]

It hardly seems fair, does it? I ran into a thread like that on here where a lady was allowed to have Roosters in her town ...but had noise complaints filed against her by her neighbors while their dogs barked. Craziness...

I hope someday you get chickens...I really do. If you have interest and heart for such a thing you deserve to have them. I have a friend who lived in a suburb of Minneapolis where her 6 "illegal" hens were kept by her and her loving family. Some neighbor discovered it and the police showed and she had to scramble to get rid of them. Thankfully she had an Aunt up here which she could bring the birds to. But not all people have that kind of outlet to find good homes.

We are allowed to have roosters where I live (in the 'burbs of Mpls/St Paul) but have to be careful not to let them become a nuisance and get noise complaints. Same goes for our dogs. Our city is one of the few who is trying to work backwards on urban chicken keeping and is trying to put into place regulations to narrow down what is allowed. I'm hoping they leave it as it is. There are lots of chicken keepers who are not bothering anyone in our city and the city shouldn't spend money trying to regulate something that isn't causing a problem.

I have worked hard not to let my roos out during hours when crowing would be disruptive. They are only out when someone is home and if we hear them having contests, they go back inside. I think they might be catching on because they don't crow as much as they once did. We sometimes let our gals free range under supervision. Don't want them running into the street, neighbors gardens or other unwanted places (or getting pestered by neighborhood dogs or other animals).

I'm hoping to start a rare breed chicken business in the next few years. I'm trying to figure out what breeds I'd like to breed and if the city doesn't go all crazy on regulation, we're going to build a new coop building with multiple pens indoors and separated runs for just this purpose. I started breeding my d'Uccles this year and have had pretty sizeable interest in the chicks from 4H families. If I had the proper facilities, I could hatch early enough to sell to them (they usually want chicks hatched before March 1 for that year's showing and currently my unheated coop causes too many frozen eggs to hatch that early and my basement brooders are too cold the way they are currently set up for babies that time of year).

 

[Minniechickmama]

We are allowed to have roosters where I live (in the 'burbs of Mpls/St Paul) but have to be careful not to let them become a nuisance and get noise complaints. Same goes for our dogs. Our city is one of the few who is trying to work backwards on urban chicken keeping and is trying to put into place regulations to narrow down what is allowed. I'm hoping they leave it as it is. There are lots of chicken keepers who are not bothering anyone in our city and the city shouldn't spend money trying to regulate something that isn't causing a problem.

I have worked hard not to let my roos out during hours when crowing would be disruptive. They are only out when someone is home and if we hear them having contests, they go back inside. I think they might be catching on because they don't crow as much as they once did. We sometimes let our gals free range under supervision. Don't want them running into the street, neighbors gardens or other unwanted places (or getting pestered by neighborhood dogs or other animals).

I'm hoping to start a rare breed chicken business in the next few years. I'm trying to figure out what breeds I'd like to breed and if the city doesn't go all crazy on regulation, we're going to build a new coop building with multiple pens indoors and separated runs for just this purpose. I started breeding my d'Uccles this year and have had pretty sizeable interest in the chicks from 4H families. If I had the proper facilities, I could hatch early enough to sell to them (they usually want chicks hatched before March 1 for that year's showing and currently my unheated coop causes too many frozen eggs to hatch that early and my basement brooders are too cold the way they are currently set up for babies that time of year).

I have to give you fair warning, it isn't as easy as it sounds to start up a small hatching business. I have been doing it now for about 3 years and it has its ups and its downs. Last year I got stuck with LOTS of cockerels and ended up selling them at a loss just to get rid of them. Also, rare doesn't always sell as well as you think. My business grows every year, but this hatching season has been awful to say the least. The Winter was so harsh that I didn't even see eggs until late June, really. Then fertility from the roosters doesn't really get good until it can at least stay above +20 degrees. I know already that this year is going to show me in the red again even if the next two months of hatching go great. I lost a bunch of sales because I couldn't get things rolling out early enough for some folks, so they went elsewhere, usually the big hatcheries.
Also, you already know 4-Hers want their chicks hatched as early after January 1 as they can get them, my kids included, and they are taking March birds this year due to the set back. Be sure you are doing lots of research on this matter. Take it from someone who did but could have and should have done more.

 

[jbenson]

I have to give you fair warning, it isn't as easy as it sounds to start up a small hatching business. I have been doing it now for about 3 years and it has its ups and its downs. Last year I got stuck with LOTS of cockerels and ended up selling them at a loss just to get rid of them. Also, rare doesn't always sell as well as you think. My business grows every year, but this hatching season has been awful to say the least. The Winter was so harsh that I didn't even see eggs until late June, really. Then fertility from the roosters doesn't really get good until it can at least stay above +20 degrees. I know already that this year is going to show me in the red again even if the next two months of hatching go great. I lost a bunch of sales because I couldn't get things rolling out early enough for some folks, so they went elsewhere, usually the big hatcheries.
Also, you already know 4-Hers want their chicks hatched as early after January 1 as they can get them, my kids included, and they are taking March birds this year due to the set back. Be sure you are doing lots of research on this matter. Take it from someone who did but could have and should have done more.

Thanks for the info Minnie. It's still a dream, not close to reality yet. Last year was my first year trying to sell hatched chicks. I wasn't doing anything special and they were all backyard mix, which certainly isn't profitable. It was more to hatch enough to have flock replacement for myself and the extras had to go somewhere. I too ended up with at least one hatch last year that was a lot of cockrels and it was a hatch I didn't sell through before they were old enough to be sexed. I ended up selling them priced very low, but I wasn't going to do the freezer camp thing again - it was a lot of work and growing them to that size caused me to care a little too much about them to do it again. DH ended having to be the one to do the actual ending of lives cause I just couldn't. I know those cockrels went to someone else's freezer and I was okay with that.

This year it's going better so far. I am hatching breeds people have more interest in (last year I thickened my own flock with some new chicks of breeds I wanted and hoped others would too). I still only have the one 'bator, so I don't hatch a ton. I sold the first bunch before they were 2 weeks old. Mostly to hobby farm families and a few families who live in a more rural setting. Since I raise bantams, my competition with the TSC or Farm & Garden store is less (I've noticed most of them carry few bantams and then do not have them separated by breed, they have an assorted bantams bin). I was hoping my target audience might be city dwellers looking for backyard flocks that take up less space, but so far, that hasn't been my customer. I think those people are ordering mostly sexed LF from hatcheries or places that order them in locally for that type of flock. So I've switched my thinking a bit and I'm still developing what I'd like to do with this. DH thinks we should get to a point where we ship chicks, but I don't think we've got the space to have that type of operation, even on the smallest of scales. The demand I just don't think is there. However, I might want to look at being able to ship hatching eggs. I definitely want to get our flock established and get NPIP. Are you NPIP? I have started looking into it and am wondering how difficult it is. I've been quite careful to ensure my flock is not exposed to anything from the flock of anyone else who has chickens and the only chicks I added to my flock came from NPIP flocks.

For now this is a fun hobby and DH is going to let me continue to do it as long as we don't get overrun by chicks.

 

[RandomChicken]

Hey all,

Just getting started in NE Minneapolis with my 4 chicks!

Cheers,

Abbey

YAY! So jealous of you but SO HAPPY for you too!

 

[RandomChicken]

Headed south to see Minnie, and came back with 11 sweet little puff balls! WooHoo! Thanks Theri! It's good to put a face to a name. Now if I can remember what each of the puffs are I'll be doing good

I assumed pictures were required within 24 hours.

And don't you think when people meet for REALS in REAL LIFE there should be a picture of the two of you too?

 

[RandomChicken]

It hardly seems fair, does it? I ran into a thread like that on here where a lady was allowed to have Roosters in her town ...but had noise complaints filed against her by her neighbors while their dogs barked. Craziness...

I hope someday you get chickens...I really do. If you have interest and heart for such a thing you deserve to have them. I have a friend who lived in a suburb of Minneapolis where her 6 "illegal" hens were kept by her and her loving family. Some neighbor discovered it and the police showed and she had to scramble to get rid of them. Thankfully she had an Aunt up here which she could bring the birds to. But not all people have that kind of outlet to find good homes.

No....not fair at all. Thank you for understanding. I feel bad for your poor friend. My family still lives where I grew up and several have coops so rehoming them if necessary would be the easies part of the puzzle.